Monthly Archives: August 2016

Can garlic-derived creams cure cutaneous leishmanisis?

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A few months after a flesh-eating disease has resurfaced in the Middle East, a research team from Saudi Arabia and Egypt has released a new study which claims that allicin, a sulfur compound found in garlic, can hold the key to a cure.

Leishmaniasis is a protozoal parasitic disease spread by the bite of certain types of sandflies. From cutaneous lesions to fatal visceral infections, the parasite is vicious, but now these scientists are saying that the compound that is derived from the oldest medicinal plant and a cream based on it can heal cutaneous leishmaniasis in mice.

The study published in PLOS One says that at a concentration of 50 micromoles of allicin put a stopper on the growth of Leishmania parasites. Topical application of allicin cream have successfully reduced lesion sizes.

The scientists studied the toxic effects of allicin on the liver and kidney, but they discovered no significant differences in their biochemical analysis between the control and treated groups.

The potential cure’s promise lies in the fact that it overcomes the disease’s drug resistance, according to the study.

Detecting deadly foodborne pathogens on the spot

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Researchers from Saudi Arabia and Jordan have invented a cheap sensor that can detect foodborne pathogens within minutes and which can be used by anyone.

The sensor can detect, among other pathogens, Listeria monocytogenes, a notoriously harmful pathogen that has caused numerous infections worldwide and whose inspection and detection efforts exhaust billions of dollars every year, says a new study published in Biosensors & Bioelectronics.

The sensor itself is made of magnetic nanoparticles. It can detect minute traces or serial dilutions of Listeria in milk and meat, as the study demonstrates. “The sensor’s performance is superior in terms of its simplicity, cost and speed,” says researcher Mohammed Zourob, the study’s corresponding author.

Zourob adds that the sensor can be used by non-skilled personnel to check the food contamination; food manufacturers, stores, distributors and even laypersons can use it.

The biosensor changes color from black to yellow in less a minute time when it detects Listeria. Zourob’s team has also developed sensors that can detect other food pathogens such as Escherichia  coli, Salmonella, Shigella flexnerii and Staphylococcus aureus.

Genomes of stone-age woman carry farming tales

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Zagros Mountains harbor a site with evidence for an ancient economy.

Zagros Mountains harbor a site with evidence for an ancient economy. {credit}JTB MEDIA CREATION, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo{/credit}

The sequencing of the first genome of an early stone-age woman from Ganj Dareh, in the Iranian Zagros Mountains, can give us a glimpse into the world’s first farming efforts and the evolution of an activity that has profoundly affected human societies.

The international team of scientists, including a researcher from King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, has been studying an archaeological site in Zagros – a site with early evidence for an economy of a population of pastoralists, primarily based on goat herding, some 10,000 years ago.

This population has evidently occupied the area for two to three centuries.

Their findings suggest that Western Iran was inhabited by a population genetically similar to hunter-gatherers from the Caucasus, but distinct from the new stone-age Anatolian people who later brought food production into Europe.

The inhabitants of Ganj Dareh made little direct genetic contribution to modern European populations, suggesting those of the Central Zagros were somewhat isolated from other populations of the Fertile Crescent.

Archaeobotanical evidence remains limited, according to the study published in Scientific Reports yesterday, but the evidence present gives us an idea into what crops were common: for instance two-row barley with no evidence for wheat or rye.

This probably means that the overall economy was at a much earlier stage in the development of cereal agriculture than that found in the Levant, Anatolia and Northern Mesopotamian basin.